The Jerusalem District Court halted the registration of ownership of the Russian Orthodox "Alexander Nevsky" church in the name of the Russian government on Thursday.
Diplomatic sources warned that the court’s decision could create a diplomatic crisis with Moscow, mainly that it comes amid Russia's war in Ukraine.
They called on Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to take advantage of his powers and officially transfer the church's ownership to the Russian government.
The Alexander Nevsky church, built at the end of the 19th century and is considered the most important Russian holding in and around the Old City, is adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. During Ottoman times, the property was registered in the name of the Russian government.
It was managed by a group of Russian immigrants to Palestine, who established an Orthodox company, Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, through which they handled dozens of Russian sites in the Holy Land.
After the revolution in Russia, the government claimed ownership of these lands. But the British Mandate government, and later the Israeli government, rejected the request.
In 2017, the Russian government filed a registration request for ownership rights with Israel's inspector in charge of the land registry.
The then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to comply with the request but never fulfilled it.
In 2019-2020, Netanyahu approved giving Alexander's Courtyard to Russia after Moscow agreed to release Naama Issachar, an Israeli woman arrested in transit in Moscow for smuggling hashish and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. The details of the deal remained unknown.
However, it turned out that one of those conditions was to approve the Russian government's request to register the Courtyard and the Church in the name of the Russian government.
The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society filed objections to the transfer of ownership, which the court rejected.
The Society then filed an appeal, prompting Netanyahu to sign an order declaring that the church was a holy site, as defined by British Mandatory law, meaning that the government and not the courts are authorized to make any decisions regarding ownership disputes.
The Land Registry Commissioner dismissed appeals against the registration and ruled that the Russian Federation was recognized by international bodies and by the authorized bodies in the State of Israel as "the successor state" of the Russian imperial government.
Therefore, as part of the registration renewal order, the land should be registered in the name of the Russian Federation and not in the name of organizations representing the Russian imperial government, which no longer exists.
The Society then filed a lawsuit against the Israeli government, asserting that its registration as a holy place aims to dispossess the company in preparation for transferring ownership of the land and the church to the Russian government.
The court accepted the case. However, the presiding judge, Mordechay Caduri, referred to immense diplomatic sensitivity and opened a loophole for the government to resolve the matter by an official decision.
Caduri said in his ruling that since the property is a holy site by definition, then the competent body to determine the ownership is not an administrative body or the court but the Israeli government.
He admitted that the government would have to decide the issue considering various religious, political, and diplomatic considerations.
In practical terms, the court passed the issue to Bennett, who must decide the matter amid the war between Russia and Ukraine and the massive sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow.
Bennett set up a ministerial committee to examine the matter in July 2021. He will have to ask the committee to decide, knowing that it has never met since its formation.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry experts, a decisive decision in favor of the Russian government is inevitable.
